SANDBOX THERAPY GROUP Reviews

There are many, many ethical issues that came up while I worked there. To name a few: - Over billing – they were audited twice by two of the major insurance companies in the area. Major issues were found on virtually every level. We were told "we didn't know the insurance companies could do [xyz]" when, in fact, [xyz] had already happened while I worked there. In response to the audits they adjusted various paperwork things but the actual work that should have been done to make the paperwork legitimate wasn't. Which is part of the next issue... - Virtually no training in ABA therapy. Most of the work (and where the money comes from) is in ABA. In addition to how to actually do the work with the kids, there was almost no training in documentation, what kinds of roles/work various people on the team were actually doing (beyond having another body in the room to add billing hours). - Offering services far outside of the scope of what the clinic can actually provide. Which meant lots of billable hours but very little actual use to the clients. It's unethical but also cruel to the clients, asking them to do things that they don't have the capacity to do because their parents/guardians think that they should be able to. It was nearly impossible to get the team leaders to have that conversation with parents. There's a lot of billable hours available in trying to teach skills to a person who, based on all available evidence, is going to need a round-the-clock aid to assist with daily living. It isn't realistic to teach budgeting to a person who can't do basic addition/subtraction and doesn't have the capacity for abstract thought, but again, lots of billable hours if you try. - One of the owners (on the ABA side) is in constant reaction mode. 'Do this fast, we have to take care of this' means there's always new messes because she (and by extension the clinicians) didn't have all the information. And the clinicians are left way over their heads without the needed support. - 'We don't do traditional ABA.' It's well-intentioned (and probably better than traditional ABA) but the work ultimately comes back to "how to make this person less disruptive to their parents and teachers, regardless of what the person might need and/or is actually capable of." There is some flexibility because at the end of the day you're the only one with the client, but you also have to document. And, especially after the audits, that's steps really close to insurance fraud because you aren't really doing ABA. - Supervision for associates was...not good. It was inconsistent and not particularly useful. Other issues: - No pay (or accumulated PTO) for driving time to clients homes. And you could be driving up to an hour each way. - Legally mandated break times counted against against productivity requirements (though I think/hope this actually changed after it was pointed out). - Very slow response when clinicians/supervisors/administrators behave unprofessionally. Because you're the one working with the clients it will always come back to you even if you have zero power to influence what happens next. - Lots of lip service to good ideals, very little follow through and/or adjustments to work those ideals out in practical ways. - The state-mandated sick leave is called PTO. So you actually have very little vacation time unless you negotiate for it specifically.